Take a look at your ongoing clients- the big successes. Think about the growth and development you've seen in them and the changes that have developed over time. What have you hoped for them? What do you dream for them?

Take five minutes to free write (which means no editing, just free flow writing) on the question below. Notice what comes up, how you feel, and what most of all what messages show up for your clients.

Your website is one place to share this kind of caring message with your clients. You may not want to share your free write verbatim, but check in with yourself to see if the hopes you hold for clients are evident in your website copy.

If they're clearly demonstrated on your site congratulations! You're one step closer to reaching the right clients.

If not, how can you tweak the copy to include more of your hopes for them? Take a fre minutes this week to add in your hopes.

About the Author:

After starting two successful private practices right out of graduate school, other therapists started calling on Gina Senarighi for marketing help.

Today she coffers business coaching for health providers who want to build and online presence in private practice with authenticity. Her business coaching clients appreciate her enthusiastic encouragement and unique ability to make the overwhelm of social media, blogging, and website writing easy to manage.

Finding Great Therapist Website Design Inspiration can be a Struggle...

When clients search for us they want to feel inspired, understood, or comforted. But most therapist websites leave them confused and chilly.

When I work with therapists to develop a website I want you to have strong mental health websites to draw inspiration from. I often start with therapists by creating a vision board of aspirational sites. But sometimes it's hard to find great inspiration.

The list below includes some of my favorites from around the web.

If you're working with a website designer to create your own counseling website I highly recommend creating your own "sites I like" list. Alongside it do include a few reasons you like the site to help the design team create something specific to you (you can see my examples here).

John Gottman

Dr. Julie Hanks

Julie Hanks is a leader in the field for media and marketing among therapists in private practice. Her site really highlights all her work.

About the Author:

After starting two successful private practices right out of graduate school, other therapists started calling on Gina Senarighi for marketing help.

Today she coffers business coaching for health providers who want to build and online presence in private practice with authenticity. Her business coaching clients appreciate her enthusiastic encouragement and unique ability to make the overwhelm of social media, blogging, and website writing easy to manage.

A logo is a branded image you use as a part of your business identity. Lots of therapists make their practice work without one, but as more and more therapists use creative individualized marketing in practice many are starting to consider including a unique logo in their business plan.

A strong logo is an important part of your private practice branding but not an essential first step in starting your business. It can be very expensive to work with a designer to create something unique. If you don't have the funds, a logo is one step you could wait on as your practice develops.

Here are some of the reasons you would choose to include a logo.

It lets clients know you take your professional work and business seriously.

It's versatile- you can use it in letterhead, business cards, online and off.

It's consistent- it helps clients see you are visually reliable no matter where they find you.

When creating a logo with a designer it will help to create a collection of logos you know your ideal client would like. I suggest starting a Pinterest board to collect your images online.

I am including many of the type-based logos we have created for clients below for your inspiration and consideration. if you would like to talk about creating a counseling practice logo give me a call for a consultation. I am happy to help you!

About the Author:

After starting two successful private practices right out of graduate school, other therapists started calling on Gina Senarighi for marketing help.

Today she coffers business coaching for health providers who want to build and online presence in private practice with authenticity. Her business coaching clients appreciate her enthusiastic encouragement and unique ability to make the overwhelm of social media, blogging, and website writing easy to manage.

It is really easy to write boring uninspired copy using tons of jargon on a counseling site. While it may be factual, it certainly isn't engaging for prospective therapy clients.

Today's clients read your site- and when they do they aren't looking for the basic facts, they want to get a feel for your voice and they way you work.

Use the website copy prompts below to get the creativity flowing. If you can commit to spending five minutes free writing responses to each prompt they will help you clarify the messages you want to share online.

If you want 1:1 help creating copy for your site schedule a consultation with me to see if I can help your new counseling practice grow in the direction of your dreams.

What I love about counseling...

Why I started out in the field of mental health...

Why I continue working as a therapist now...

Three personal things I can share with clients without worrying about ethical concerns are...

One of the biggest mistakes I see in private practice today is believing the myth you can have a prosperous therapy business without a website.

While that may be true for businesses fifteen years ago, it is simply not realistic for counselors in private practice today.

Even if you have a robust facebook page or psychology today profile, a website is essential to a successful practice.

There are a number of reasons you need a website. I'll outline those below.

Why you need a website:

1. To reach more clients

Modern clients use the internet

Clients use the internet to search for everything now. They are going to use it to find you. If you don't have a site you are missing hundreds of opportunities to connect with prospective therapy clients.

24/7 availability

Although you may not be on call- your web site is. A site never stops working for you. Even if clients are searching for you at 3:00 A.M. they can find resources you've shared and ways to connect during business hours.

2. To increase your credibility

Having a website is a great way for your to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise to prospective clients and referral sources.

Give information generously

One great way to support prospective clients (even those you never work with) is to provide useful information on your website. Having a site creates a space for your to offer tools, links, and other resources for folks who are suffering- even if you never meet!

This is one way to help people who cannot afford counseling, or who may not engage for quote some time to try implementing change in their lives on their own. You can support them well before they decide to become a client.

Demonstrate your training and expertise

Sharing information so generously allows potential clients to see all the tools and resources you know about specific topic areas.

Clients come to us because they want tools- so share some! Blogging, offering worksheets, recording meditations, sharing resources all demonstrate the wealth of training and knowledge you are able to share with new clients.

3. To create clarity with new counseling clients

You want your clients to have a clear idea of what your work is like, and what to expect from sessions.

Provide expectations, forms, guidelines

One of the best outcomes of having my website updated is having clear expectations for new clients outlined. All my forms and professional disclosure information is easy to find and my specializations are clear for referral sources and colleagues.

4. To build trust and rapport with therapy clients

Offer consistency to build trust

We all know, building trust is essential with clients in therapy. Having a clear and reliable website, branding blog, and social media plan allows clients to see consistency in your message and grow trust before you ever meet.

5. To demonstrate empathy when your clients need it most

Let your clients know you understand

If nothing else, you want your potential clients to leave your website feeling understood. Get clear about who you want to work with (and who you work best with) and what they are most looking for when they search for you.

Use the copy (writing) on your site to express understanding and offer tools and resources that will help then with the problem they are focused on.

Building a website doesn't have to be difficult- or cost a ton of money. If you'd like help building an easy to use private practice website contact me for a consultation- I would love to help!

Gina Senarighi is a business coach for therapists, social media strategist, and author. With careful planning and strategic marketing, in under one year she lead three thriving therapy practices.

Gina has quickly become a trusted voice on authenticity in marketing as an author, teacher, and guest expert on local and national media.

Due to her successes in therapy business she's been coaching other therapists to grow their counseling practices with ease and integrity.

If you have your site set up, here are the key areas you can clean up in a couple minutes to bring more traffic in your door:

Check your contact information

The point of a site is to get folks to contact you- right? Let's make sure it's super easy for them.

This step is simple (but often overlooked): make sure your contact information is correct and easily visible on every page of your site. Yes, every single page- we want them to be able to contact you whenever they are ready- without clicking through to other pages.

Use a scheduling link

Remember, clients are often in crisis when they contact us so we want to make it as easy as possible for clients to move from our site to an appointment. Asking them to get out their phones to type in a number is too much for many modern clients.

Using an online scheduling tool to help clients say yes to an initial session with ease. I useAcuity Scheduling for my free screening consultations (before they become clients) but there are many other tools (some of which are HIPPA compliant and will also handle your billing and case files).

Use client language

Clients want to know how you can help them. Use their language instead of jargon about your training or therapeutic orientation to help them know clearly and easily what you can offer and how you help.

Make your offering clear

Most clients will spend under 10 seconds on a site before deciding if they want more information- or leaving to check another therapist's site. Be sure your homepage clearly says you offer counseling, or therapy in a specific form (therapy for teens, couples counseling, premarital consultations, christian counseling etc).

If it's easy to understand quickly clients will be far more likely to explore your site for more information (and set up a consultation).

Clean up your about page

The about page is the most visited page on most therapists' sites. Use this page to get clear by writing from the client's perspective, tell them what makes you passionate about this work and what makes your work unique.

Answer the phone

Here's where a lot of therapists miss potential clients. If they call you, they want to see you- set a time near the end of each day and be sure you return each and every call.

Here's a rule of thumb: if you don't have time to return calls, you don't have time to take new clients.

Follow up

Finally, follow up is one of the places many therapists miss opportunities with new clients. If you miss a call, or someone doesn't give a call back, do take the time to reach out one more time just to be sure they have the referrals they need, or to let them know you have a new opening.

I can't tell you how many of my clients have appreciated this follow up and have told me how few therapists actually followed up with them. Lots of clients are out their writing for a call back, if you are the therapist who does you will have an advantage in filling your caseload.

There you have it- seven simple tips to fill your couch. Take a few minutes this week to tune up your site and notice how it helps connect clients to your work in the coming months.

If you want further help building your private practice site, or developing a purposeful practice schedule a free consultation here. I am always happy to talk with other providers to help you build your business.

Gina Senarighi is a business coach for therapists, social media strategist, and author. With careful planning and strategic marketing, in under one year she lead three thriving therapy practices.

Gina has quickly become a trusted voice on authenticity in marketing as an author, teacher, and guest expert on local and national media.

Due to her successes in therapy business she's been coaching other therapists to grow their counseling practices with ease and integrity.

Coming up with fresh and engaging content for a site can be a real challenge. Two important mindshifts really helped me get mine up and running.

What to know before writing for your private practice site

First, it's important to remember a good website is a space of constant evolution- because you and your therapy practice are in constant evolution! This doesn't mean you have to keep re-writing it forever, but it does mean everything you write is a draft. You will continue to add material and edit over time.

Second there are a few pages that will get the most traffic on your counseling practice site, so you can concentrate your energy there and build on more content later. You really want to focus most on your home, about, and services pages. Make it as easy for clients to know what you offer and how to connect with you on these pages and you are more than halfway there!

A strong therapist website will prioritize these questions above all:

Make sure every potential therapy client who visits your site can answer these questions when they see your counseling website.

Do you care?

Can I trust you?

Do you understand?

Can you help me?

The Big Therapy Website Picture

Every page you share on a website for therapists should clearly answer these questions:

How do I contact you?

What do you want me to do? ("schedule a free consultation" or "download my free guide")

This is another in an installment of easy 5-minute website tweaks for counselors in private practice. These are designed to help market with authenticity and ease. To receive these tips and other simple tools to build your practice in your email click here.

Most therapists fear if they focus their marketing materials to a specific demographic they won't fill their practice.

That is simply not true.

As the world shifts to more and more online marketing, clients expectations are shifting.

Clients want to feel understood and empathized with before they even call you.

Whenever you write materials for your site, hold your ideal client population in mind. If you realize a few years into practice that your focus has shifted, shift the copy on your site (you should do this every few years anyway).

Get clear about who your favorite client is and what they are looking for when they search for your site.

5 Easy Minutes to a Better Therapy Website

Ask yourself the question above and write out your answer. Write without editing for five full minutes.

Get as clear as you can in your response. Jot down as many true answers as you can. Take your time and refine language that resonates most with you.

When you're done, pull up your website and take a look with new eyes. Are you using your client's language on your site?

Potential clients decide whether or not to engage with a provider after less than 30 seconds on a website. If your responses aren't in their language take a time this week to include your response somewhere on your private practice site.

I look forward to hearing how these simple reflection tools help your practice grow. And of course, don't hesitate to contact me for coaching if you want help implementing this kind of authenticity online.

Gina Senarighi is a business coach for therapists, social media strategist, and author. With careful planning and strategic marketing, in under one year she lead three thriving therapy practices.

Gina has quickly become a trusted voice on authenticity in marketing as an author, teacher, and guest expert on local and national media.

Due to her successes in therapy business she's been coaching other therapists to grow their counseling practices with ease and integrity.

This is another in an installment of simple 5-minute website tweaks for therapists in private practice. These are designed to help market with authenticity and ease. To receive these tips and other simple tools to build your practice in your email click here.

One of the authors I have learned most from in my work building a practice is Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell has written a number of best selling books on social phenomena and psychology, and in his book David and Goliath, he outlines some of the ways being disruptive is essential to innovation.

I am including this video of an interview with Malcolm Gladwell below where he talks about acceptance of peers and colleagues and innovation. I this this is especially important to our work with your site because most of the therapists I work with are greatly concerned with the opinions of their colleagues (often even more so than the opinion of their potential clients).

This kind of identity management leads to website copy that appeals to colleagues- but not to clients.

Ask yourself the question below and write out your answer. Jot down as many true answers as you can. Take your time and distill out the language that resonates most with you.

Look over your responses. How many of these aspirational goals are attached to fear, scarcity, or avoidance? How many of them are dreams or wishes? Take it one step further, and ask yourself, if my work is authentically represented online- who will I be online?

Most potential therapy clients decide whether or not to engage with a provider after less than 30 seconds online.

Review your site and see if any of your answers to the second question are reflected on your site. How can you bring your site into greater alignment with your authentic work?

I look forward to hearing how these simple reflection tools help your practice grow. If you want to deepen your work with authentic marketing join the free facebook group called Authentic Marketing for Therapists.

And of course, don't hesitate to contact me for coaching if you want help implementing this kind of authenticity online.

Gina Senarighi is a business coach for therapists, social media strategist, and author. With careful planning and strategic marketing, in under one year she lead three thriving therapy practices.

Gina has quickly become a trusted voice on authenticity in marketing as an author, teacher, and guest expert on local and national media.

Due to her successes in therapy business she's been coaching other therapists to grow their counseling practices with ease and integrity.

Pinterest is a fun and easy tool for sharing resources, articles, and recommendations among colleagues and with clients.

For therapists concerned with dual relationships, or boundary concerns with clients, Pinterest's limited messaging and commenting functions make it easier to use as a resource sharing forum rather than a more interactive setting (like twitter or Facebook).

Pinterest is also an excellent tool for sharing your blogs and posts. You simply add an image to each blog post you share and then when it goes live, pin it to your boards. Easy peasy.

Pinterest images have greatly helped boost my site SEO by increasing the clicks to my site. I currently receive more referrals to my site from Pinterest than any other social media source.

For me, it is the easiest and most fun to use. I love images, and often find great worksheets and tools posted by other therapists on the site.

Check out these fantastic boards to see a few examples of your colleagues in Couples Counseling and Marriage Therapy using Pinterest.

If you are noticing few of your prospective client consultations are turning into regular paying clients, you might want to complete the following site review.

Consistency online

Consistency online is really about having a clear and consistent message. Some therapists fear clarity (worrying if they focus their message they will miss prospective clients) and form generalist practices. This most often leads to inconsistency and confusion for clients.

Loving ourselves through the process of owning our story is the bravest thing we'll ever do.

- Brene Brown

It is an incredible act of courage for most of our clients to attend their first therapy session. Being vulnerable with a complete stranger is such an incredible risk for any of us.

How do you help clients engage in that courageous act? Most therapists will tell you we "create a safe container"- but what does that actually mean?

In my practice the safe container starts with clear expectations and boundaries. Often we wait until an initial session to cover these with a new client. But what if we started sooner by offering this kind of clarity on our sites?

Creating a safe container online

Your online presence, website, and social media are some of the best free tools you can use to create your client's experience and manage expectations before you ever meet. You can and should use your site as a resource to inform clients about the counseling process, procedures, and confidentiality.

Invite new clients

Most clients consider therapy for a long time before ever contacting a counselor. Your website is available for these clients 24 hours a day to answer questions about the therapeutic process and let them know what to expect.

How clear are your online expectations?

What do your new clients need to know before starting psychotherapy?

Start by making a list of all the questions new clients ask in first sessions and what prospective clients ask before starting their work with you.

Their questions are a great indicator you could make this information clearer and/or more available in your private practice website copy.

Use your list of client questions to re-work your services and about pages. You can also create a FAQ (frequently asked questions) page for your counseling website based on these.

They are also a great resource for blog post inspiration. Use these client questions to write blogs about your work and share resources your clients may find useful.

Clients choose therapists who understand them.

Therapists who clients believe can help get more referrals and land new clients. All too often counseling practice websites speak more to projections of ourselves than the needs of clients who are seeking us.

Use this week's website tweak to speak directly to your client at the moment they are searching for therapists in your area. To receive more in this series of simple 5 minute website tweaks for therapist sites in your inbox click here.

Get in your client's head

Imagine your dream client at the moment they are searching for a therapist. What are they hoping for? What do they want to have happen?

Odds are, if you know this client well, you know their answer. Take a moment to review your site- are you connecting with your client? Are you clearly demonstrating understanding in a way they can read?

You can demonstrate understanding by asking questions ("Are you hoping for more space in your relationship?"), writing blogs (10 Ways to Relax this Week), and outlining your services as they connect to your client's hopes.

I offer website reviews as a part of my coaching work with therapists in private practice. If you would like me to take a look at what you're doing and help you grow your practice click here to schedule a free consultation.

You aren't selling therapy...

I know that most of us cringe at the idea of selling sessions to our clients, and they truth is, most of us are trying to sell therapy. But most client's aren't looking for therapy when they are searching. They want solutions.

... but you are selling

You can call it something else if you want to but the bottom line is our clients are paying our business for a product (our sessions). Modern web consumers usually consider many different sites when selecting a therapist and they want to know what the benefit to working with you will be.

Clients are not searching for therapy- but they are searching for solutions. It's the job of a great website to make it clear to potential clients just how you help them solve problems.

We're not talking about making false promises (no snake oil here) but identifying the specific problems you are great at helping clients address.

There are unique and specific benefits to working with you. Think about how clients benefit from your work together. How might they describe those benefits to others? Using their language make a list of all the benefits of your work.

Where can you get free stock images for websites?

Colleagues who visit my site and social media accounts always ask where I get my photography. Using bold images is one easy way to set yourself apart from other pages, and to have potential clients and colleagues help promote your work by sharing it.

I get compliments and shares on my images every single day and haven't spent a dime on purchasing images. I was fortunate to discover original free stock images on a few great sites early on in my process.

Here are a few other sites I recommend for free stock photography:

Again, this site is full of more traditional stock photography, but its totally free for use on your counseling website.

Finally, if you are looking for trendy patterns for the background of your site or images, look no further than The Pattern Library, a catalogue of free vibrant patterns for whatever online project your little heart desires!

One of the most challenging parts of starting a blog as a therapist is getting inspired to write. We emphasize receiving information in our field- not giving it- so putting our expertise online can seem counter-intuitive.

At the same time, it is critical for clients to understand your gifts, perspective, and training in order to start building connection and empathy online. Blogging is essential to creating expertise online, and increasing your website SEO.

Each week I will post a prompt to help you get started with your private practice blog. Use the writing prompt below to start building momentum this week!

This Week's Blog-Writing Prompt for Therapists:

One easy prompt course for regular mental health counselor's blogs is the National Health Holidays schedule. This can help you create posts around awareness like National Lung Cancer Awareness Week, Suicide Prevention Month, and National Invisible Disability Awareness Day.

Go through the list and find the dates your clients might be interested in or dates related to your therapeutic orientation. You can use other holiday and national awareness day themes.

Did you know November is National Aviation History Month? April 3rd is National Don't-Go-To-Work-Unless-It's-Fun Day, that should be fun to write about.